Hagadah

Use drawings to illustrate themes such as mida kneged mida and dream interpretation (related topics), eg:

• Start with a diagram of Yosef's dreams: brothers selling borther as slave to egypt juxtaposed to the jewish people as slaves in egypt (this is three themes; dream interpretation and mida kneged midah, and also the effec tof interpretaiotn of a navi).

• A bubble showing what brothers are thinking, bowing and how it is wrong since the sheaves are in the dream, and then they had to bow (this is three themes: dream interpretation and mida kneged midah, and also the effec tof interpretaiotn of a navi).

• Drawing of pharoah laughing at ridiculousness of M"R old man stuttering and his older brother = self-delusion, hardneing of heart.

• Juxtaposing the mida kneged mida reasons for the plagues with the corresponding aspect of the plague (m kneged m)[and also the tanin swallowing the others juxtaposed ot the cows swallwoing th eothers etc]

• Pharaoh with bubble of what he is thinking as he pursues BY into the split sea.

Lot matza pesach

The time-transcending Mystery of Matzah!

Firstly, we must remember that Jewish Holidays are not just remembrances of past events but rather are opportunities to attach to deep energies crafted long ago by our ancestors. By attaching to these we not ony benefit ourselves but strengthen the transmission into the future - and perhaps also help ratify the initial energy-creation, justifiying God's help at that point in the past - to our ancestors - granting merit backwards via our dedication.

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A conundrum: God stresses several times in the Torah the importance of eating matzah on pesach and not eating chametz. Matza is very mysterious since we are told to eat it because it was all that we had after we left Egypt in haste without time to bake full bread - the passage tells us we baked "ugot matzot" matza-cakes - but that's odd since God told us beforehand we'd need to leave in haste so we had time to prepare, indeed we spent the evening feasting together on the Passover sacrifice.

Even stranger than that, we were commanded to eat that sacrifice with matza and marror, BEFORE leaving Egypt! Marror is supposed to remind us of the slavery in Egypt, yet here were eating it the night we were to leave Egypt, matza is eaten because we fled in haste and didn;t have time for it to rise to be bread, yet here were spending tiume preparing matza in Egpt to eat with the sacrifice that last night!

Clearly there is a lot more to matza than seen at the surface level of the command.​ And somehow cause & effect have been reversed....as though what happened later (leaving in haste, with matza resulting) influenced what was commanded to happen earlier (eating matza before leaving).​

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If we read the stor yof the exodus for the first time in the Torah and were asked to pick out what would be a suitable event to mark annually, perhaps one would choose the plagues, or the splitting of the sea, or the confrontations with Pharaoh etc, we would certainly not choose as most significant the fact that our leaving in haste caused our dough to not have time to rise, resulting in matzah instead of bread, and therefore we should eat only matza for a week annually! And that we need to get rd of all chametz in our homes!

Why is this seemingly side-detail turne dinto the central significant event to be marked so prominently every year?

Of course in the time of the Temple (may it be speedily rebuilt) we would be keeping the command to eat the Pascal lamb and that would be a very significant ritual, but along with it we would be eating matzah and maror, and that would make it all the more strange that we need to eat matzah for 7 days not because of the korban pesach but because of the leaving in haste...

So what is the significance of matza?

There is a Tradition that the inner meaning of a word in the Torah is linked to the context in which it appears the first time in the Torah. So where is matza mentioned first?

Surprisingly , it is in the story of Lot - the passage tells us that he served matza to the angels in Sdom! He endangers his life to find guests, tempting the death penalty for this, begs them to come to his home, and then in that very hot city on that hot day he serves them.......matza!? Imagine if that's what a host who begged you to come visit gave you when you were hot and dusty from travel.

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The angels are coming directly from their visit to Abraham, where he and Sarah rush to prepare food for them: Abram say 'come eat bread' and they answer strangely, and suddenly Abram rushes to Sarah and says quick, let's make 'ugot'! NOT bread.​!​

So Abraham & Sarah serve 'ugot' and Lot serves matzot, ​and the ​clear ​implication according to th​e algorithm ​that the first place of mention of a term​ gives its inner meaning​, is that all this is somehow related to the "ugot matzot" which the Jewish people baked and ate in the desert as they f​le​​d Egypt, and which we are commanded to eat for 7 days every year!

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What is all this about!?

​Perhaps t​he answer lies in the prophecy of God to Abraham, that his descendents will be slaves in a strange land and wi​ll ​be opressed ​(​but then God wi​ll​ take them out.)​..

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What would YOU do if you had a prophetic dream that your descendants would be slaves for a long period. After waking, would you go out to celebrate that eventually they would be redeemed, or would you perhaps think deeply about how you could help these descendants through the tough time ahead?

​To a great prophet of Abraham's stature, it was cear that​ t​his​ prophecy​ was​ ​not just a prediciton or informaiton about what woud be, but rather th​a​t it was a challenge to him, a task he was meant to fu​l​f​il. [Indeed, the information he received was in response ot his query "with what can I know, that I will inherit" which we can interpret as "what can you tell me which will enhance the chances of my descendents sccessfully inheriting".

In other words it was up to him to create​ - based on the informaiton revealed in the prophetic deam - the spiritua​l​ energies which woud enable his d​e​scendents to merit the exod​u​s from Egypt .

​And so​ when he later on engages in a completely sefless act of hospitality to hungry people in the desert, placing himself in danger ​to do so ​​(​since he was elderly and after surgery​, the brit and it was the hot part of the day in the desert plain​)​.

And Lot does ​exactly ​the same​, endangering himself to welcome stragenrs to his home as guest!

Lot thereby merits being rescued, pulled out of his house under attack in a manner reminiscent of the jewish People being rescued from their homes in Egypt during the Plague of the first born (this was the connection to the Pascal sacrifice..).​ Lot then goes on to father Moav, who is the ancestor of Ruth who is the ancestress of David who is the ancestor of the Moshiach!

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So ​we will speculatively interpret the "ugot/matzot" duo in terms of both of them (Abram/Lot) preparing energies for their future descendents, for their first exodus exile, as part of the process culminating in the coming of ​Lot'​s descendent Moshiach (may it be soon!).

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There is a tremendous interaction of different historical times, the time of Abraham and Lot, and hundreds of years later during the Exodus from Egypt, and now when we eat matza and attach thereby to the now-annually-recurring energy of Passover, and later - hopefully soon - when Lot's descendent arrives.

And all this is somehow mystically related to matza, helping us understand some aspect of the significance of the seder tonight.

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There is obviously "more hidden in this than revealed", one probably needs to be a high-level mystic to truly understand, but one only needs to be oneself as one is, in order to partake of the energies and help build them forward. May we all merit to do so tonight!

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The connection to Matza:

FIrst: matza is mysterious since we ate it the night we left! And we knew we would need to rush! And it isn;t mentioned at all during the story of slavery, why was it so important?!

So we will seek hints and allusions.

Sources

Ugot matzot: לט וַיֹּאפוּ אֶת-הַבָּצֵק אֲשֶׁר הוֹצִיאוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, עֻגֹת מַצּוֹת--כִּי לֹא חָמֵץ: כִּי-גֹרְשׁוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לְהִתְמַהְמֵהַּ, וְגַם-צֵדָה, לֹא-עָשׂוּ לָהֶם.

Lot served matza: Rashi explains that it was Pesach, and therefore cakes were served and not bread.

According to the Gmoro, Yitzchok was born exactly one year later, in Nisan, so the visit of the angels was in Nissan.

(According to Midrash it was on Pesach. ?)

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At yetziat Miztrayim, Jews (are told to) make ugot matzot: Parallel to: 1. Avram & Sara who prepare & serve ugot ,and 2. Lot serves Matzot

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https://www.bethjacob.org/when-was-pesach-first-celebrated.html "Abraham was eating Matzot on the 15th of Nisan, and celebrating the future redemption of his children as a show of confidence in Hashem, thus creating a family tradition that he passed on to Lot and his progeny for all time."

This whole "mahalach" is the missing link to idea that matza has to do with ego, ie Avram Lot lowered ego, received shchinah (Lot had angels visit!), somehow connected to matza.

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https://www.ou.org/holidays/passover/compassion-and-connection/

The entire enslavement experience was meant to teach us to serve, to train us in humility so that we could become true servants of Hashem and enjoy the blessing of that service (irrespective of other blessings that Hashem may give us) writes Rabbi Roth z”l .

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Avraham ran to invite them in, rushed to prepare the best foods for them, and asked Sarah his wife to prepare oogot matzot/matzah cakes for them. From this exchange we deduce that Avraham Avinu kept the laws of Pesach even though the Torah had not yet been given. But the hallmark of Avraham Avinu’s character was chesed, kindness, while Pesach is generally associated with servitude. How can these two contrasting ideas, loving kindness and servitude, form a basis for associating the holiday of Pesach with Avraham Avinu, asks Rabbi Yisroel Weintraub in Einei Yisroel?

[In Pachad Yitzchak Rav Hutner zt”l ?]....we extend chesed and invite all who are needy/kol dichfin to join us in the celebration and the feast of the Seder.

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Rav yoel bin nun makes the parallel between the two stories (yetiat mitzrayim and Lot) based on the wording: https://www.etzion.org.il/he/%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%AA-%D7%91%D7%90-%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%97-%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%97-%D7%A1%D7%93%D7%95%D7%9D

draws parallel between words in psukim of yetzias mitzrayim and re Lot in sdom, very nice, so it wa sindeed 'pesach' meaning of passing over Lot and fmaily like later pasisng over J people etc.

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A summary of the parallels is given elsewhere: When we compare the stories of the Exodus and the visiting angels we find striking similarities. Aside from Matzot, I’ve found at least 10 words and phrases that appear in both places. Examples include closed house: Lot closed the door after the angels entered his home. Similarly, the Jews in Egypt were commanded not to leave their houses on Passover night. The root “שחת” (destroy) is used in both stories to describe what happened outdoors. We see the phrase “קומו צאו” (arise and exit) as well as יתמהמה (to delay) in both stories. God brought down like rain (וימטר) the elements (hail, fire etc.) and both events took place throughout the night until morning. At the end of both stories, nations were born - by Lot: Moav and Amon and in Egypt: עם ישראל.https://www.bethjacob.org/when-was-pesach-first-celebrated.html without attribution to Y B Nun.

He says: What can we understand from all of these similarities?

For me the message is clear. Pesach is a holiday of opening our homes to others, both family and strangers. Abraham celebrated the Seder night with his family and with the angels. The Haggada tells us to invite all family members, including ALL four sons, regardless of background, intelligence and worldview.

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https://www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php?id=19368&pt=1&pid=14327&level=0&cPath=43,14206,14211,14327,19368#_ftn2 uses that idea to make other points: he quotes Rmakhal re energy of the time on yomtov recurring etc, ie BY were taken out of egypt in nisan because Lot & avraham made tha ttime special for a passing over etc.

“They would not listen to Moses” (Ex. 6:9)? Merely that it was hard for them to part with their idols. And so it is said: “I also said to them: Cast away, every one of your, the detestable things that you are drawn to, and defile not yourselves with the fetishes of Egypt” (Ezek. 20:7); and it says further,…”So the Lord spoke to both Moses and Aaron in regard to the Israelites…instructing them” (Ex. 6:13)—charging them to give up idol worship.

In order to be delivered, the Israelites, who were imbued in idolatry, had to draw themselves away from pagan worship. They had to make decisions, cut themselves off from Egyptian culture. Only such resolve would bring redemption, would deliver them.

This notion is reinforced by another parallel between Lot’s Passover and Passover of the exodus. Both called for performing an act that endangered the one who did it, thus attesting that the person had rejected the ways of his environment: Lot took a risk by taking in guests and thus demonstrated his rejection of the society of Sodom; the Israelites slaughtered a lamb, an Egyptian deity, thus showing their severance from Egypt.[3

In light of this, Rashi’s comment that “it was Passover” does not look so far-fetched; it is the plain sense of Scripture. Perhaps he did not mean Passover in the sense of the festival that falls in the month of Nisan, but in the sense of passing over.

Passover falls in the month of Nisan not because of the exodus from Egypt, but the other way around; the exodus from Egypt took place in Nisan because Nisan is the suitable season for Passover, fitting for Redemption. This follows from Ramahal’s remarks regarding Passover (Ramahal, Derekh Ha-Shem, Part IV, ch. 7, par. 6), that significant events leave their mark on the season in which they took place. At the same point in time, each and every year, the Divine bounty that brought about these events appears again.

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https://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/the_matzah_of_lot.html

one could make the argument that Avraham had a special affinity for Passover. God had told Avraham that his children would be enslaved and eventually liberated, and Avraham celebrated this event, or at least the promise itself.3 This, then, is what lies behind the Midrashic identification of Avraham's ugot with a Passover feast. Avraham was celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, the realization of God's promise to him, an event which he anticipated with great joy and celebration.

1. Rosh Hashanah 11a. (return to text)
   2. Yoma 28b, Kiddushun 82a. There are sources that see the reverse - the Jews receive the Mitzvah because Sarah preparedugot. See Midrash Rabbah - Shmot 15:12: " 'And Matzot' (ibid.) - in honor of Sarah who prepared cakes for the angels..."(return to text)

There is an earlier Midrashic reference to Matzah: When Lot was kidnapped someone came to inform Avram of Lot's situation. According to the Midrash the person was Og, who found Avram preparing Matzah because it was the 14th of Nisan. Significantly, the text records that the battle to free Lot is waged at midnight. (return to text)

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https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3114473/jewish/Memoirs-of-Og-the-Not-So-Gentle-Giant.htm#footnote24a3114473 “The fugitive came and told Abramthe Hebrew.”²² The fugitive is me. After all, I’ve been pretty lucky so far. I’m the only one outside of Noah’s family who survived the Flood, and I did manage to escape Chedorlaomer and his army.²³ For those of you wondering where I received my name Og, well, it wasn’t by chance. When I arrived at Abraham’s place to deliver the news, he was the in middle of baking matzah for Passover. In Hebrew, matzah is called עוגות מצות (ugot matzot). Out of gratitude to Abraham, I adopted this as my name, so now everyone just calls me Og.²⁴

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Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 23. See Rashi to Talmud, Zevachim 113b, who implies that Og stood throughout the Flood and survived because of his great height. There are those who are of the opinion that Og was in fact Eliezer, the servant of Abraham. See Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer.

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לוט מצה פסח

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Separate idea:

(interesting that all the psukim below have problematic aspects: what is Sukos, who are the erev rav, how come they didnt prepare food if they knew they would leave in middle of the night etc, it wasn't 430 years, only 1/5th left not all, what is leyl shimurim).

לז וַיִּסְעוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵרַעְמְסֵס, סֻכֹּתָה, כְּשֵׁשׁ-מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף רַגְלִי הַגְּבָרִים, לְבַד מִטָּף.

לח וְגַם-עֵרֶב רַב, עָלָה אִתָּם, וְצֹאן וּבָקָר, מִקְנֶה כָּבֵד מְאֹד.

לט וַיֹּאפוּ אֶת-הַבָּצֵק אֲשֶׁר הוֹצִיאוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, עֻגֹת מַצּוֹת--כִּי לֹא חָמֵץ: כִּי-גֹרְשׁוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לְהִתְמַהְמֵהַּ, וְגַם-צֵדָה, לֹא-עָשׂוּ לָהֶם.

מ וּמוֹשַׁב בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲשֶׁר יָשְׁבוּ בְּמִצְרָיִם--שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה, וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה.

מא וַיְהִי, מִקֵּץ שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה, וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת, שָׁנָה; וַיְהִי, בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, יָצְאוּ כָּל-צִבְאוֹת יְהוָה, מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.

מב לֵיל שִׁמֻּרִים הוּא לַיהוָה, לְהוֹצִיאָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם: הוּא-הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה לַיהוָה, שִׁמֻּרִים לְכָל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְדֹרֹתָם. {פ}

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DUP?

This whole "mahalach" is the missing link to idea that matza has to do with ego, ie Avram Lot lowered ego, received shchinah (Lot had angels visit!), somehow connected to matza.

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outline of my 5-minute 'vort' to motivate inviting others for a seder:

• Jewish holidays are not a 'memorial of past events' but rather a time of recurring of the 'energy' of the original event (said at purim megillah reading with JICNY; the video is part of this channel).

• The first referenced seder according to chazal was when the 3 angels ate Matza with Lot, and with Avraham.

• Both had great mesirat nefesh to invite the seder-guests in this incident (and the korban pesach is communal); they were creating energies for their descendants (perhaps for the food during the 40 year desert, so they invited hungry people, and Avraham deliberately chose a desert, and it was on a very hot part of the day!) Avraham was right after the brit, this gav ehim the possibility of creating eenrgies for secendants, brit is covenant, over time, and Bney Yisrael were rigth after brit of har sinai..)

• Of course we were redeemed from slavery on pesach, but WHY!? Hashem says we were taken out of Egypt "leshochni besocham" (to dwell amongst them).

• Avrom Avinu received the shchinah by caring only about the physical needs of guests, not his own needs, and this reduction of self-ego leves only the ruach hashem to shine forth (human are ruach hashem + 'earth'), ie is "leshochni besocham'.

• The night of leaving Egypt, the Jewish people were asked to invite family etc, eat together. And WE begin OUR seder (magid) with a welcoming of UNINVITED guests, our homes are open like that of Avraham avinu.

• This helps us attach to the recurring pesach-energy, which is the whole purpose of the holiday.

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Seder material, MY (AR's) 'Hagaddah' some chumash vorts for pesach , my haggadah.chumash stories & 'Kaballah' ideas to use at seder, FOR ADULTS, not kids; make video of this; for intelligent people who want to understand, learn: talking points for discussion at the table

chumash stories & 'Kaballah' ideas to use at seder, FOR ADULTS, not kids; make video of this; for intelligent people who want to understand, learn: talking points for discussion at the table

The idea is not simply to ‘remember’, but rather to attach to the energy of that night; it is not a command/obligation but an opportunity: but to attach most deeply, it is good to understand what happened then. What is special on seder is that we re-enact it - chayav adam lir'ot..ke'ilu HU yatza..": by doing the seder, eating matza, maror etc, we re-experience everything, including the high spiritual energy

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kol dichfin: Vayera, Avram/Sara: taking care of physical needs of humans....this is how we attain the spiritual level atseder night.(and chazal say it was pesach when they came?)

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How did we end up in Mitzrayim, and as slaves? The yosef story: a. noone too big to fail b. correct dream interpretaiton, stars bowing, etc,; had the brothers kept 'dan lekaf zchut' they'd have arrived at correct interpretation, and also al Jewish historywould have been different - we need to be there for our borther&sisters, help them with their dreams...

(Leaving Egypt: closing the circle, we carried Jospeh's bones)

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Why were we taken out of Egypt: God says: le shochni betocham: explain , (and also mikdash is that, so need to be in EY?); and lihyos lachem leilokim (and also....?)

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Plagues Karma.

(P: drown J baby boys in the Nile, so his army all drowned in the red sea).

Hardened heart = self-delusion, P entered sea; (power, magic etc):

God's intervention is invisible, enable us to mislead ourselves; yam suf wind all night.

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Why need to have freedom? Eden account, free will, can only exercise it and be responsible when are free. We were not cursed, in fact God wanted us out of there..... exodus form Egyptis counterpoint of exile from Eden..

Torah is etz chayim.... , like kruvim at Eden etc; purpose of exodus form Egypt was to get Torah, etz chayim returned to us!

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M"R: sneh vs 'koran or panav'; true anovo

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